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The 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature is making big news in China, being hailed on television and the Internet, in a marked departure from the past.

Just minutes after the Swedish Academy gave the award to Chinese writer Mo Yan, state-run television broke into its usual programming to relay the news. Millions of Chinese took to social media and micro-blogging sites to post their feelings, many calling the prize a triumph.

2012 Nobel Prize in Literature

Mo Yan

Born in 1955, grew up in Shandong province in northeastern China.

First short story published in a literary journal in 1981.

Breakthrough work was Touming de hong loubo, first published in Chinese in 1986.

Seen as one of the foremost contemporary authors in China.

The Royal Swedish Academy said his work "with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary."

"I am proud of him as Chinese," said Beijing resident Zheng Qingcheng. "The Nobel Prize is a world class prize. He is great. I am so happy for him."

Hu Yanyu, a 29-year-old finance officer, called it a first.

"I think this sends a signal that the foreign mainstream culture is now accepting Chinese culture, so I think this is very gratifying and worth congratulating," she said.

But this is not the first time someone from China has been given the prestigious honor.

A troubled past

In 2000, the Swedish Academy awarded the literature prize to Chinese writer Gao Xingjian for his "bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity . . . in the writing of Gao Xingjian literature is born anew from the struggle of the individual to survive the history of the masses."

But by the time the award was announced, Gao Xingjian had been living in France for 13 years, having been declared persona non grata by Beijing.

Chinese officials said awarding Liu a Nobel prize was an insult. Neither Liu nor his family was permitted to attend the award ceremony in Oslo, where his absence was marked by an empty chair on the stage.

In China, the anger over the so-called "insult" has lingered. Just this past June, China refused to grant a visa to former Norwegian prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, whom it blames for the decision to award Liu the peace prize.

China changing course

This time, though, there will be no empty chairs.

"He said that he was overjoyed and scared and, yes, he is coming to Stockholm," said Swedish Academy permanent secretary Peter Englund, who praised Mo Yan for his "hallucinatory realism."

Editor-in-chief of the state run Global Times newspaper, Hu Xijin, said Thursday Mo’s winning the award was a sign the West is looking beyond Chinese dissidents.

Dissident anger

But not everyone is happy.

Hong Kong-based blogger Wen Yunchao criticized the committee for giving the prize to Mo, who serves as vice president of the pro-establishment China Writers Association.

"The two words 'Mo Yan' mean 'do not speak,' and they are a very real portrayal of the current political situation in China," Wen said. "With Mo Yan winning of the prize, people in China will get the message that you can become an accomplice of an authoritarian government. As long as you have made enough contributions to literature, you will have the chance to win the most prestigious international award. Morally and politically, I think this will have devastating consequences.''

New insight into China

Those who teach Mo Yan's works say they understand the criticism but they also say to focus only on the current politics is unfair.

One of them is Alexander Huang, a professor of English, theater and international affairs at George Washington University, and an author who has written about both Gao Xingjian and Mo Yan.

"Some of his [Mo Yan's] works were censored early on," he said. "I think his works, especially the fantastical realism, has a lot to say about his society. In other words, his form of social criticism is more subtle."

Huang says by putting the spotlight on Mo Yan, the Nobel Literature Committee may be signaling an important shift in how Chinese literature, as well as the whole region, needs to be viewed.

"We are only interested in the output by the so-called dissidents. We are less interested in art for art's sake. And in Mo Yan's humorist, satirical and humorist narratives about his society we see a different face of art and literature from that region," he said.

University of Maryland literature Professor Andrew Schonebaum agrees.

"This pick seems to celebrate Chinese cultural productivity on its own merits, as opposed to being really politicized," he said. "When it comes to China in the last couple of decades, we in the States [the United States] have been primarily concerned with politics and economics, and this I think is a pretty crucial component that's often overlooked."

Both Huang and Schonebaum say the focus on Mo Yan could help bring attention to more artists and writers from China, perhaps even catapulting some onto the international scene.

If any of them manage to catch the eye of the Swedish Academy, they could join a growing list of influential artists and scientists. Seven other Nobel laureates were either born in China or are of Chinese heritage, although none lived in China at the time of their award.

Jeff works out of VOA’s Washington headquarters covering a wide variety of subjects, from the nature of the growing terror threat in Northern Africa to China’s crackdown on Tibet and the struggle over immigration reform in the United States. You can follow Jeff on Twitter at @jseldin or on Google Plus.

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Comment Sorting

Comments

by: Wangchuk from: NYC

October 12, 2012 12:21 PM

When the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Liu Xiaobo and the Dalai Lama, China claimed the Nobel committee was biased against China. Now the CCP sings the Nobel's praises when a Party member is awarded the prize for literature. Mo Yan deserves this award, the CCP does not. It is the CCP that is biased here.

by: Yoshi from: Sapporo

October 12, 2012 12:44 AM

Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo lived in China even in a jail when he was awarded, didn't he? Faithfully Nobel prize should be free from any political power. But it cannot help being affected by such power especially on Peace and Litereature Prize to some extent. A Japanese PM got Peace Prize a bit long ago as a reward of his work of handing back of Okinawa from the U.S. But he is not honored by most of Japanese because it was uncovered later that he had consealed a secret promise with the U.S. over the issue of Okinawa.

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